hyperTunnel

hyperTunnel Ltd, founded in Basingstoke in 2018 by Steve Jordan and Jeremy Hammond, developed a method of constructing tunnels without people underground: swarms of small robots travelled through horizontal directional drilling bore pipes and 3D-printed a tunnel shell in the ground before the spoil was excavated. It won a research contract with Network Rail after appointing former Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne as chairman, took investment from French contractor Vinci in 2022, unveiled the 'Peak XV' robot-built demonstration tunnel in October 2022 and signed a deployment agreement with AmcoGiffen in 2023. Accounts to April 2023 showed £9.6M of debt and 40 staff. A £12M loan plus nearly £2.8M of interest owed to Thai investor Hamersley fell due at the end of July 2024, and attempts by Gordon Brothers to find investment, a sale or a restructuring failed. Paul Davis and Timothy Dolder of Opus Restructuring were appointed joint administrators of hyperTunnel Ltd and its parent on 23 July 2024.

The business stopped trading on the administrators' appointment and 37 staff were warned of redundancy while a buyer was sought; no going-concern sale has been reported. The company moved from administration to creditors' voluntary liquidation on 22 July 2025 and the liquidation was still open at the September 2026 receipts-and-payments filing.

Financing a long-horizon construction technology mainly with a single large loan left the company with a hard maturity date it could not meet, and the overhanging debt made it unattractive to new equity investors once the repayment loomed. Pre-revenue deep tech with no commercial projects in flight had little to offer a buyer under time pressure.